19 Months Old

William is 19 months old today! He's looking and acting more and more like a little boy! Over the past month, he's really started talking more. He tries to mimic everything we say. His favorite word is "NO" said in a sassy, dramatic way like "Nooo-ahhhh"!!! We hear a LOT of that. At times it can be absolutely hilarious and other times downright frustrating...depending on what we're asking him to do :) MY favorite words of his are "pease" (please) and "tank-do" (thank you).

He's still our little social butterfly and LOVES being around people. His all time favorite person is Mary Walker, "Mae Mae", our four year-old neighbor. He squeals with delight when he sees her outside and you better not get in between him and Mae Mae. He adores her and she's quite the little momma to him. She loves to treat him like her "baby" which is really funny considering he's almost as big as she is...haha!

He likes to take Mae Mae's bike for a spin while she's at school sometimes. 

 What more could a boy want? Being outside with a basketball in hand, wearing a hat, and swinging! 

We had our first major boo boo this month. It scared us to death!! William and Grant were wrestling on the bed, and William did a running dive off the bed and landed right on his head. I cried, Grant panicked, and William was on the move again 30 seconds later. Thankfully, he didn't vomit or lose consciousness. I know this is the first of many accidents but I think I aged 10 years after this one!

We love hanging out with our buddy Liam and his awesome mommy, Rebecca. These two are only a couple of months apart, and it's so much fun watching them play together. 

He also got to hang out with his buddy Jack and baby Quinn a couple of weekends ago. 

Juju and "Stee" kept William for 2 nights after Grant and I were in Dothan for Virginia and Matt's engagement party, so we could have two nights baby-free. William got to experience the National Peanut Festival (THE fair) for the first time. He rode a horse, went on several rides with Juju, and Uncle "Duh" won him a snake. Needless to say, he was in heaven. 

One of his all time favorite activities is "swiffering." He comes by it honestly ;)

He's starting to recognize colors, and will randomly say "red" or "green" when we're riding down the road and he sees a red/green sign. When we walk down stairs, he says "two" for every stair. Maybe he's trying to grasp the concept of numbers and counting?!

 Wagon ridin' is another favorite activity, even when it's absolutely freezing outside!!

My mom came in town for one day this past week to do a little Christmas shopping. She's been wanting to see the new Children's Hospital, and I knew William would enjoy looking at all the Christmas decorations. He was enthralled with the billion Christmas trees and Santa's everywhere! 

 Dada can always get the best giggles!

He sleeping is pretty much like clockwork. He goes down every night at 7pm and is always up between 6 and 6:15. As soon as his feet hit the ground he runs to his high chair saying "oat-meh" (oatmeal) or "bah" (nutri-grain bar). While Grant and I chug coffee to wake up in the morning, he will sometimes watch Diego (his favorite show). At school, he takes one nap from 12-2. At home, he will sometimes still take 2 naps (morning and afternoon) depending on what we have planned for the day.

Tonight I caught him "pretending" to use the potty...he certainly keeps us laughing!!!

Virginia and Matt's Engagement Party

We celebrated Virginia and Matt's engagement a couple of weekends ago in Dothan. As we arrived in town, we came upon this gorgeous sunset. There's really nothing more beautiful than a south Alabama sunset.

 I snapped a couple of pictures before the guests arrived at my parent's house. 

 My grandmother did this flower arrangement. One day, I want to give flower arranging a try!

Another host did this one! Seeing these beautiful arrangements makes me never want to purchase another overpriced bouquet from a flower shoppe. Most of the flowers from those arrangements came from people's yards around town. 

Virginia and Matt are getting married in New Orleans, so in sticking with the New Orleans theme, there was an oyster bar. It was a major hit of the evening. 

 We can't wait for the wedding this summer!!

Busy Boy

This past weekend we were in Dothan for Matt and Virginia's engagement party that was at my parent's house. We had so much fun...more on that later! It was SUCH a beautiful weekend and I couldn't resist TRYING to get some cute photos of William before the party. He was too busy to slow down to smile or even acknowledge I was chasing him around with my camera ;)

 He pulled every single flower off Juju's flower pot. I didn't notice it until he finished the project. 

Love that sweet profile.

 He loved all of the hosts coming in and out of the house all day bringing stuff over for the party. 

 He found the leftover Halloween candy. 

 He's going to need a haircut soon. I'll probably cry to see some of those curls go!!

Halloween 2013

William was a lion for Halloween this year! He had mixed feelings about his costume at first, but by the end of the day he didn't want to take it OFF!

Over the costume by this point.

I took William to his class Halloween party at his school on Thursday morning. I had THE best time seeing him interact with his buddies. When we got there, the other children were eating breakfast at tables, and William thought he was SO cool because he got to eat breakfast while sitting in my lap. When he finished eating, he walked around the room saying hi to his friends while they were strapped in their chairs. He then came and grabbed my hand as he led me around the room as if to say, "Hey Mom, let me introduce you to my friends and show you all the toys." We stayed for about 2 hours and it was really great for me to see him so happy at school.

 A lady came in to play the guitar and sing to them. They were all mesmerized by her and William danced while she sang.

 Taking a group picture of this many toddlers is pretty much impossible!!! There is only one little girl in his class right now - poor thing.

 William is quite friendly ;) 

 The babies went trick-or-treating to each classroom. William wasn't ready to go home (he pushed me away) so we stayed a little bit longer so he could play on the playground. 

 I could tell he was a little confused as to why I was there. He kept looking at me like, "Aren't you going to leave?" 

 Baby collision on the slide!

We had such a fun morning! Halloween night, I put William in his costume one last time for some quick trick-or-treating on our street.  Next year we plan to join our neighbors and actually do some REAL trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. 

A Day at the Zoo

Since William has become increasingly interested in animals, we decided to hit up the zoo again. He loved it! It was REALLY hard to get him to keep moving from one exhibit to another. I think next time we'll just camp out at the monkey exhibit. Those were his favorite! He also stopped to play in the dirt several times, climbed up on the chairs in the eating pavilion, and tried to jump several fences to play with the animals :) Maybe he belongs with the monkeys?!?

 "Dada, bir bir." Bir = bird = parrot :)

 Checking out the zebras.

 Mesmerized by the elephants.

Pretending to be the animal he resembles the most...a tall, lanky giraffe :)

William had a stare off with that elephant. He won.

He LOVED the monkeys. I'm pretty sure he wanted to climb in there with them. 

 This was the look on his face for the entire 2 hours we were there. I think we're going to look into getting a zoo membership!

18 Month Check-Up

William had his 18 month well baby check-up on Thursday. The appt. was at 10:30 and I knew he was going to be tired because he usually goes down for his nap around 12pm. The first thing he spotted when we walked in the office was the huge bucket of suckers they give you on your way OUT. Well...needless to say William was the exception to that rule because he lost it until the nurse gave him one. He's always done so great at the pediatrician but this time he KNEW the doctor's office wasn't a fun place to be.

Poor thing got his foot hung under the door when the nurse came in to measure him. There were LOTS of tears over that incident. It was traumatic for all involved.

He recovered quickly from his foot getting jammed under the door when I brought out sucker number 2 and a new ball. Shortly after this happy, sweet picture was taken the nurse came in to give him FOUR shots. As usual, he was back to his happy-go-lucky self moments later.

Weight: 28 lbs. 8 oz. (75th %ile)

Height: 35 3/4 inches (off the charts)

Head circumference (can't remember but off the charts)

His pediatrician was very pleased with his physical growth, motor skills, and cognitive development which we are very grateful for!